Bill to Extend Homebuyers Tax Credit Closing Deadline Dies

If you arrived here via a search engine, please pay careful attention to the date of publication.
There are dozens of articles on this site about the Home Buyer Tax Credit. You can see them all here.
For the most recent news about the Home Buyer Tax credit, please see this article (July 2, 2010).

UPDATE – July 2: This morning President Obama signed into law H.R. 5623, the “Homebuyers Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010”. This extends the homebuyer tax credit closing date to September 30, 2010. (You must have been under contract to purchase a home by April 30. This extension does NOT change that date). Source: Whitehouse.gov

UPDATE June 30, 2010 On June 29, the HOUSE passed H.R.5623, which would extend the home buyer tax credit closing deadline to September 30. You still have to have been under contract by April 30. Late on June 30, the Senate passed the bill. It is now on its way to the President’s desk for his signature, which is expected soon. We’ll update when that happens.

H.R. 4213 ”“ the bill that had an amendment to change the closing deadline for the homebuyer tax credit from June 30 to September 30, 2010 appears to be dead.

Last night the Senate failed for the third and final time to pass the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, which had numerous amendments attached to it, including one to extend the $8000 / $6500 first time / repeat home buyer tax credit.

A vote of 57 ”“ 41 failed to reach the 60 votes required to end a filibuster, effectively killing the bill.

There might be other versions proposed at some point, but for now, if you are eligible for the tax credit and were under contract to purchase a home by April 30, that transaction must be closed by June 30 in order to qualify for the tax credit.

My guess, and we’re talking pure speculation here, is the unemployment extension provisions of this bill will be “spun off” into a separate bill. What will happen with the homebuyer tax credit closing extension? I won’t even hazard a guess… Congress could, in theory, pass something with a retroactive date to extend the credit. Or, the credit deadline could go on as planned. Who knows…

About Jay Thompson

I'm a former real estate broker in Phoenix, Arizona, currently work for Zillow Group and am the founder of the Phoenix Real Estate Guy blog. I tend to drive too fast and scream at the University of Texas and Denver Broncos football teams. My two kids are smarter than most adults I know and my wife is simply amazing.

Comments

I really hope they revive this extension and pass it in another bill. I have a few short sales that should have closed this month and are not going to make it. Those buyers had their contracts done before April 30th (one in Feb) and are going to miss out because the banks have taken so long to approve – not the buyer's fault.

Like Jayson, I didn't like the idea of the tax credit all that much when I first heard about it.

My husband and I were planning on buying our first house this summer anyway, so when it got extended to April 30/June30 closing, we made sure to get our contract in my April 30, because…well, who couldn't use an extra $8,000?

We went through the mortgage process as quickly as we could from our end, because we wanted to get the tax credit. We don't NEED the money, per say, but, again…who would turn this down? We rearranged our schedules and rushed around. All along the lender said no problem, we'll close on the 25th. Well, it's the 25th, and we're still waiting on underwriters, and it's not looking good to close by Wednesday.

We're not backing out of the sale, we don't actually need the extra money, we were going to buy anyway…but it sucks a whole lot to be told if we hurried we'd get $8,000, and end up (most likely) not getting it, even though we did everything right and got every document asked (which was about a million, by the way) to the lender by the end of the day they asked for it. We probably would have bought the same condo, but it would have been nice to to not feel rushed to sign a contract, and to not feel the need to take so many personal days from work to get things done, just to get the tax credit.

It’s a shame for buyers like Tiffany mentioned above. I didn’t/don’t like the tax credit too much, but I think it’s silly for buyers to lose out on the credit because of a bank. Hopefully they can come up with a solution for these buyers.

They could take the money they recoup from fraud (if they can recoup it) and use this towards special circumstance credits. Problem with that is that everyone has special circumstances.

I can’t say that I supported the tax credit to begin with (after all, should we as taxpayers really be paying people to buy a property). I would actually question those who drafted the original Bill (and subsequent extension) as to why they had the deadline to close 60 days (June 30) when so many short sales simply couldn’t close within that time frame. Did real estate professionals, who know firsthand that timeline is unrealistic, have any input?

The hype about the tax credit was dragged out for so long, but I never saw a huge spike in sales from it….some discussion, but no great action. I live in Florida, but maybe other Realtors in other areas had a different experience from it?

If nothing else I do hope Congress takes serious note of how darn tough it is to Close a home sale within 60 days — even when the real estate agents and lenders put an all out effort into it! I do hope they'll get back to improving and streamlining the day-to-day regulations that will allow both reduced scamming and quicker closings for home sales.

For those following the on-going saga of the homebuyer tax credit closing deadline extension, be advised that the HOUSE just passed a bill, H.R. 5623 to extend the closing deadline to Sept 30. Remember your high school civics though. This is NOT law until the Senate passes it and the President signs it…

Like many of the agents who have posted here, I have a buyer who should have closed already and will lose out on the tax credit. They did not buy just because of the tax credit, however, what I did see here in Texas is that the tax credit did get people to get off the fence. Interest rates are at historic lows, there are tons of foreclosures and short sales, and a first time buyer got a tax credit of $8000. What a deal for buyers. When May 1st came our phones stopped ringing.

My buyer who is now stuck in closing hell, wrote an offer on a Washington Mutual foreclosure, which was accepted March 15 (long before the April 30th deadline). They were set to close May 3, however, Washington Mutual had originally foreclosed on the property incorrectly. In addition, the listing agent did not weatherize the home, took three weeks to turn on utilities, and here we are two months later with broken pipes due to freezing, and CACH that was torn apart by the previous owners. Washington Mutual has drug their heels on everything and here we are.

My buyers were looking at using that $8000 to make badly needed repairs and now, through no fault of their own, will not have that money available. I did notice that when trying to call my Senator in Washington to ask about the status of this bill you can not get through the switchboard. Probably more buyers, sellers, and agents calling to lodge their complaints

UPDATE: Both the House and the Senate have now passed a stand-alone bill that would extend the closing deadline for the Homebuyer Tax Credit from June 30 to September 30. Still needs to be signed into law by the President, which is expected to happen — possibly as early as today. Even if the President does not sign the bill today, it is structured to be retroactive so the extended date of Sept 30 would apply to everyone.

God I am praying that they extend this as this was the only reason I decided to purchase now because of the first time credit and I am depending on this. I even sold stock at a much lower price so I would have money for the down payment and closing cost. I was suppose to close May 28 but the mortgage broker I have messed up by not knowing that FHA did not approve the adult community where I am purchasing a house so a week before my closing I’m told I have to now put down 10% instead of the 3.5 % I already gave and go conv loan and at a slightly higher interest rate and to top that off the whole process of finding a loan had to start again. I now have the commitment and the bank has everything they asked for so it is just waiting for them to give the go ahead. I have been told that it should go to closing within the next few days if not tomorrow.

I thought about walking away from this deal but I would lose out on my deposits and all the other cost I have already paid, home inspection, termite inspection, appraisal and all the application fees. I feel like crying all the time now and I am so tired of everyone asking, “when are you closing, what’s going on?” I am also tired of living out of boxes. I signed my contract for sale in Feb under the condition that I wait until late spring to actually close due-to the owners being in Fl for the winter. This mortgage broker had over 5 months to make sure this would happen in time and even my real estate agent said this should be a breeze but he waited until the last minute and then found out that the place no longer did FHA loans. This is, I truly believe, the fault of this Broker and the company he works for. I trusted he knew his business and shouldn't he have known the property was no longer accepting FHA loans? He told me I had the loan and then a week before the closing date he left a voice message saying the place I was purchasing is no longer FHA approved.

Now I was told that the extend was passed by the house of represntatives but now has to be signed by the President and then it goes to the Senate. How and when can I find out what is happening on this??? The thought of losing out by a few days has me sick. I was hoping to pay back the loan I took from my 401k, this is my retirement money.

As it stands right now (July 1 at 6:30pm MST), a bill to extend the closing deadline for the tax credit to September 30 has passed both the House and the Senate. President Obama is expected to sign it into law, probably tomorrow (and even if the timing for his signature slips, the bill is written to be retroactive).

So, assuming Obama signs it (and there is no reason to think he won't), then as long as you were under contract by April 30, and close by Sept 30, and you qualify for the credit, then you should get it.

Whoever told you the President signs the bill and then it goes to the Senate is not correct. That's not how laws are passed.

I'll post an update on this site as soon as I can after the President signs the extension into law.

UPDATE – July 2: This morning President Obama signed into law H.R. 5623, the “Homebuyers Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010”. This extends the homebuyer tax credit closing date to September 30, 2010. (You must have been under contract to purchase a home by April 30. This extension does NOT change that date). Source: Whitehouse.gov

I had 3 buyers with homes under contract that where saved by this extension. I can't even begin to tell you how happy they where! Especially since one of them was counting on the money to repay a family member who let him borrow money to purchase his new home!

I would actually question those who drafted the original Bill (and subsequent extension) as to why they had the deadline to close 60 days (June 30) when so many short sales simply couldn’t close within that time frame. Did real estate professionals, who know firsthand that

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[…] June 25, 2010: The bill this extension amendment was attached to died in the Senate last night. Story here.UPDATE June 16, 2010 – Today the Senate passed this amendment to extend the closing date […]

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